Can you hear me?

by jago
Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.54
Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.26
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.82
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.07
Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.14
Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.78
Coolness★★★★★★★★★★68%
Can you hear me? is a game where get only one of your senses: hearing. You are in a place and there's another person speaking to you. Find that person.

The game is just a black screen. Use arrow keys to move around. You hear footsteps when you are moving so that when you don't you know you've hit a wall. TO CLARIFY: When the game starts there is no sound or visuals. Just start walking with arrow keys and you should hear something.

The game is best played with headphones on or with surround speakers. I've only tested with crappy headphones.

There is a bug in the end that causes one sound to keep playing after the game has finished.

Probably only works on latest version of Chrome and on Firefox nightly builds! This due to the use of experimental Web Audio API.

This is my first time attending LudumDare and it was kind of unplanned. That's why I got started in the evening of day one, went to sleep and finished of today. Nowhere near 48 hours used.

screenshot

Comments34

whiteknife16 Dec 2013, 19:15
Cool concept (I'm actually working on a game with the same "hearing only" premise myself!) but it's not working for me in Firefox.
Masadow16 Dec 2013, 19:21
I don't hear anything under chrome :(
ThatGuy16 Dec 2013, 19:25
Interesting concept to play with, though I quickly got lost. For those having problems, it worked for me, just press the arrow keys to walk around.
LukeR16 Dec 2013, 19:36
Doesnt Work
xgeovanni16 Dec 2013, 19:36
In Chrome on Ubuntu nothing happens. In the console I get "Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'NaN' of undefined map.js:2".
Kane16 Dec 2013, 19:38
Really fun idea and fun to play too ! I like it :)
but sometime the sound was just totally missing, I think a possibility of switching between "visual" sound (like shockwave or something like that) and audio can be interesting! Great job !
Jagoauthor16 Dec 2013, 19:47
Forgot to mention that due to the use of Web Audio API only latest Chrome and Firefox nightlies are supported. The "Uncaught TypeError" shouldn't matter. At least for me it didn't. I only had time to test on Chrome.
timtipgames
timtipgames16 Dec 2013, 19:52
Nice idea. I think I hita dead end(?) several times.
Tsumei16 Dec 2013, 19:58
Not loading for me at all sadly :( But I was trying to load it in Opera, so may be the reason.
CaptainKraft
CaptainKraft16 Dec 2013, 20:44
I've got a black screen in Chrome on Linux. No sound or visuals.
zconnelly13
zconnelly1316 Dec 2013, 20:50
Wow, what a cool game! So hard though, haha. What was that hissing supposed to be?
Jagoauthor16 Dec 2013, 20:50
Well, there shouldn't be any visuals. You don't have vision after all. Use arrow keys to walk around. You should hear footsteps.
Jagoauthor16 Dec 2013, 20:52
Don't ask me! ;) I'll leave everything to your own interpretation.
WojWorks16 Dec 2013, 20:57
Really inventive and interesting to play. I've always wanted to see a "hearing only" game.
arrogant.gamer
arrogant.gamer16 Dec 2013, 21:11
Same, nothing in either browser. Ubuntu.
ParaPup16 Dec 2013, 21:49
Nothing :V I want to hear but it's got no go :V
Jagoauthor17 Dec 2013, 04:53
Check the developer console. Do you get error saying AudioContext is not supported? If so, your browser doesn't support Web Audio API. It seems like Ubuntu version of Chrome has problems with this. =(
darwinpek
darwinpek17 Dec 2013, 19:39
I couldn't find the person :( Pretty hard game, but a very interesting concept.

I heard him say "Thank god you're here, I don't know how long I've been stuck down here", or something along those lines.
Jagoauthor17 Dec 2013, 19:45
That is actually quite early in the game. =D The logic of this other person is quite fuzzy. Lack of time makes great plots, haha.
StMatn17 Dec 2013, 19:56
Wow, awesome experience!
This is best player with closed eyes. This kind of lets me think about, how blind people are experiencing the world.
Really great work!
lilinx17 Dec 2013, 20:04
Simple but effective, not knowing what the sounds mean adds a lot to the atmosphere! You can't help wondering what must have happened. I couldn't beat it (and I can't really identify the direction of the sound, but my earphones are very bad). Somehow similar to my own game!
Jerre
Jerre17 Dec 2013, 20:06
sadly cannot get it to work, was very curious
Jagoauthor17 Dec 2013, 20:28
@StMatn
Yes, playing eyes closed is my favourite too!

@lilinx
It is quite hard to identify the directions. Had no time to tweak the panning system. I think it would be easier with a surround system so that you could hear the front/back difference. Your game seems great! Definitely going to check it out when I get a chance.

@Jerre
Any error messages in the console? What browser?
oskardevelopment17 Dec 2013, 20:51
Game isn't loading for me sadly - I've tried in Chrome, Explorer and Mozilla.

In regard of my game "You only get one Earth", thanks for playing - I've added control tutorial at the top of my entry, hope it will work!
Jagoauthor17 Dec 2013, 22:05
Any error messages in the console? Thanks, I'll check it out again when I have time. =)
NightShadow0
NightShadow018 Dec 2013, 05:48
Couldn't finish it, stumbled into a dead end. Interesting experience. Maybe you could consider having some noise right at the beginning just so people know it loaded.
Tanser18 Dec 2013, 16:57
Interesting for sure. Good job. :)
local minimum
local minimum18 Dec 2013, 20:07
Nice idea, but after exploring the world a bit, being quite systematic, I got the feeling that it was quite the big place. Such that more auditory queues would have been needed to help (e.g. maybe a resonating sound effect depending on the size of the current room).
Jagoauthor18 Dec 2013, 20:39
The map is mostly just corridors, only one or two rooms. But you're right, there should've been more sounds and marker but I didn't have time to do them, unfortunately. =(
Shigor
Shigor20 Dec 2013, 21:24
No, I can't hear anything (chrome, windows)
van noctar27 Dec 2013, 19:21
Good concept! But it's very hard!
Dry Tree
Dry Tree29 Dec 2013, 01:58
Nice idea, but I found there were not enough clues to make sense of it so I was just 'guessing in the dark' and although I tried for quite a long time I didn't feel I'd progressed at all so I just became bored and stopped playing. Sorry :/

Good work though for your first LD especially when you used a lot less than 48 hours!
jimmypaulin
jimmypaulin1 Jan 2014, 19:28
Love the idea, the sounds were superbly immersive, but it was too hard - felt very lost and not obviously able to locate to sounds / when I did nothing happened that helped me feel I was on the right track. Love the concept though!
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